Nariz del Diablo
5 October 2005 (Wednesday) – Riobamba to Cuenca, Ecuador
The reason that many tourists come to Riobamba is to take the touristy train called Nariz del Diablo that leaves from Riobamba three times a week. The train system in Ecuador, to be honest, is not functioning very well now, due to landslides, volcanic eruptions, lousy maintenance, whatever… But certain parts had been restored and converted into touristy excursions, in view that Ecuador is full of tourists. The train I took from Quito to Parque Nacional El Boliche is one such example. The other is this route from Riobamba to Alausi to Sibambe and back to Alausi. What they call Nariz del Diablo (Devil’s Nose) is that there is a so-called unique (perhaps, it was really special and innovative at the time of its construction but I do not have any railway expertise, so sorry…) section where the train descends down quite a bit of altitude in a zig-zagged manner. I had obtained mixed opinions about this ride from other travellers who had done this trip. Apparently, it was not as ‘wow’ as described in the guidebook. Still, I took the ride, just to see for myself, but I kept a very open mind.
Again, the passengers all climbed on top of the train for the best view. I had hoped that today would be a clear day to see the volcanoes but no such luck. The sky was heavy with clouds all over. As the train left at 7am in the morning, people were already up there by 6am and gosh, it was cold. Ismael had told me Riobamba is known as Friobamba (‘frio’ is ‘cold’ in Spanish). Best to get yourself well covered up.
The view was not spectacular spectacular but beautiful enough. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, viewing the mountains and farms and countrysides. Many campesinos in their traditional costumes stopped work to wave at the passing train. Often, they had wide smiles on their faces. I thought it was very sweet. Of course, there were groups that appeared to be very shy, standing there with their yokels and staring at us dumbly. And gosh, the children… they were the best! Many very tiny, well-bundled up, children were waving and smiling happily at us. The tourists bought sweets from the tireless vendor on top of the train with us and tossed the sweets to the children. They were delighted and scrambled for them happily!
The section famously called Nariz del Diablo was just a section of three parts where the train had to shuffle to and fro in a zig-zagged manner to lower itself from the cliff to the bottom of the canyon. It was not too impressive to us and many appeared to be disappointed, but like I said, perhaps, this was an amazing engineering feat at the time of construction. The train from Machu Picchu to Cuzco in Peru had this same feature, if I remember correctly. But, personally, I thought the canyon views just before and after Alausi were the best of the entire ride and hence, it was worth it to take the train til this section.
On the ride back, a guy was already selling us bus tickets to Cuenca. OK, the name list seemed to be filling up fast. I bought myself a ticket. When we returned to Alausi, it was past 2pm and as the bus was leaving at 2:30pm, we barely had time for lunch before clambering onto the bus hurriedly. It turned out there were more tickets sold than seats available. Gosh… I was lucky for I took nearly the last seat available.
The rest of the trip to Cuenca was mysteriously blurry. Either we were very high up in the mountains or the clouds hung really low due to the lousy weather of today. We could barely see more than 5 metres outside the window. Everything was just milky white. I think the driver could only see the road just a few metres in front of him. We travelled really slowly along this route, and overtaking is pretty much out of the question. I got to chatting with Rachel, the Australian girl sitting next to me and we played stupid games like ‘Guess the Singer and Song’ of the ’80s songs being played on the radio and seemingly so preferred by the Ecuadoreans. Imagine, there was once I overheard ‘She’s a maniac’ by Michael Sembello TWICE within one day in Latacunga.
When I arrived in Cuenca, I made my way to my host’s house by taxi. I had contacted an American lady Tamara who has lived here for 2 years. As she was not able to accommodate me, she put me up in her neighbour Juan’s house. Juan has a really nice bachelor pad and he is an movie-addict. There must be at least 200 VCDs and DVDs, many of them alternative movies, in his apartment. There are movie posters like Pulp Fiction, Casablanca, Charlie Chaplin, etc… Wow, I think I might be watching a movie everynight here!
Movie of today – ‘21 grams‘ by director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Great movie.
Tags: 07) Crossing Ecuador Line, Cuenca
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